1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for displaying information in a data processing system.
2. Description of Related Art
Businesses employ networks and enterprise systems having a vast array of resources. These resources include, for example, servers, routers, work stations, terminals, storage libraries, and other types of devices used in providing data processing system capabilities. Currently, viewing large numbers of resources such as work stations or servers in a server farm may be viewed by scrolling through names in a table. This type of presentation may be in a window with a scroll box allowing the user to scroll up and down through names of servers or other types of devices that are being viewed. Within this table, the different resources may be presented in different orders, such as in the order of name or usage.
The drawback of this type of resource information presentation is that a user is unable to view the entire system at one time. A user may only see part of the system at any one time. Further, requesting each work station or server as an icon helps provide a view of the entire system one piece at a time. Obtaining useful information from this type of display, however, is difficult. A user may move a pointer to hover over an icon to display additional text. This type of presentation of information with these steps is difficult for users with disabilities to use.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for presenting resource information for a network data processing system.